The Off Topic Topic

[Josquius]

True. It's funny to imagine a paper 30 years ago with an article "Man in Black Boer Pub, Plymouth, reckons Gazza is on drugs"

[HVC]

When the whole meat of your news article is what people are complaining about on Twitter/X...I think you need rethink your credentials as a journalist.  It is no better than random "man on the street" interviews.

100 per cent agreed.Nothing I hate more than reading a news story that begins " So-and-so took Twitter by storm yesterday..." or "Twitter is outraged that so and so..."

You may remember back in the time before time when news broadcasts had reporters go out in the street to interview people about their views.

Indeed I do...and it was primarily local news/on local issues, or not taken anywhere near as seriously, and especially not as the primary sources of news piece.

It was taken so unseriously that late night shows took it to the extreme and asked dumb people on the street questions for laughs.

[Tamas]

For my dad it's about saving momey
He has a ready supply of waste wood.
Not sure on the environmental pros and cons there but it's hard to beat substantial money savings

Your dad is obviously both pompous and pretentious.

Nooo, because it is not an open fireplace, and it also wasn't installed into the house after it was built as part of a fashion thing. It was installed when no alternative was available.

And just to be clear if somebody is too poor to burn anything else than wood I have zero problem with that. What I have problem with is people who burn wood for the sole reason of the aesthetics of doing so.

[Jacob]

Which is kind of funny, because the major environmental impact from wood burning is from the masses of people in places like India who burn wood because they can't afford the alternative.

If we could get rid of people burning wood for aesthetic reasons OR get rid of people burning wood because they can't afford alternatives, the second option would have a much greater impact by far.

[Tamas]

You cannot ask people to not heat at all. But you can ask them to stop poisoning their neighbours and return to gas or electric heating.

[Zanza]

You could also mandate that people in rich countries who want to burn wood for aesthetic reasons install a filter system in their chimney.

[Barrister]

Ah, wood fires...

-In my first house (which was by a lake out in the country) I had a wood stove.  So, not an open fire but it burned wood (it burns more efficiently in a proper wood stove).  I loved that thing.

-Yukon.  I did not have a wood stove (we had to rely on heating oil, which sucks).  There is so much land in Yukon you can actually get a free permit to go and cut firewood to heat your home.  But I have to admit that the smoke and particulate could get oppressive in winter

-camping.  You can take my wood fire when I go camping from my cold, dead hands (well actually they'd be pretty warm hands I guess)

[Grey Fox]

I miss having a wood stove. Grew up with one & it would heat my childhood home with a wonderful warmth(something my childhood isn't full of). 

My house came with one but it was broken & I had no money to fix and I got rid of it. 

[Barrister]

I miss having a wood stove. Grew up with one & it would heat my childhood home with a wonderful warmth(something my childhood isn't full of). 

My house came with one but it was broken & I had no money to fix and I got rid of it. 

I have a gas fireplace.  I'm not going to lie - it's a hell of a lot more convenient to just flip a switch, rather than have to go out and cut wood plus clean out ashes.

But it's just not the same.

[Habbaku]

You're right; it's dramatically better in every way to a polluting, stinky wood-burner. 

[Syt]

Driver in Austria swerved off the road and hit a tree that literally impaled her car. Miraculously, she was not hurt in the accident.

[The Brain]

The car wants a cigarette.

[Josquius]

How does one hit a tree at this angle.

[HVC]

Australian parliament is weird

[Josquius]

Huh. So its just for attention.
I thought it was going the same place as the old UK rule about a speaker's hat.
Did someone (Sheilbh?) post about that on here recently or was it something I saw randomly?